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First Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer Is A Disappointment

Paramount has released the first teaser for Star Trek Into Darkness, and I have to say that I’m rather disappointed. It appears that JJ Abrams and co. have decided to double-down on the action and villain heavy plot of the Star Trek reboot. I enjoyed that reboot, in part because of all the call backs to the original and the way it turned the story into a coming of age for both Kirk and Spock.

But the weakest part of Star Trek was the villain, Nero, and the unnecessarily action-heavy plot. Now, I have no doubt that Benedict Cumberbatch will play a stronger villain than the bland Eric Bana. Cumberbatch is terrific in everything. But couldn’t we have gone in a different direction for the new Star Trek movie?

The best Trek movies aren’t the action-packed ones. Star Trek II has only a handful of action scenes, and they all moved the plot forward by revealing something about character. Ditto Star Trek VI.Star Trek IV has virtually no action scenes at all. And many of the most riveting scenes in those films are nothing but dialogue.

Last week, I went to the movie theater with my brother to watch two Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes to celebrate the Blu-Ray release of the second season. One of them – “Measure of a Man” – he had never seen before. He commented to me afterwards that it was one of the most intense things he’s ever seen on the big screen – and most of it was just five people sitting in a room talking.

There’s nothing wrong with action-intensive space opera. But I think that Star Trek should aspire to be more than that. I hope that the next glimpses of the film that we get will show that this film is more than that.

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I don’t recall a single Star Trek movie that had more than a handful of action scenes. Star Trek I had a few attacks at the beginning when V*GER took out a trio of Klingon cruisers and a Federation Space Station, but most of it was about the Enterprise and crew plodding along and trying to look bewildered at a cloud covered robot. STIII had the Grissom blown up and one fateful encounter between Enterprise and a Bird of Prey and a couple of skirmishes with Klingon’s on Genesis. STV just had a bad script, bad editing and bad special effects. The Next Gen movies looked more like extended TV series episodes, but they did try to up the action quotient.

1) your basing this all on a 1 minute announcement teaser; not even a teaser trailer but an announcement teaser? caman

2) your comparing what a $ theater experience should be to a television episode? Caman, now your just being silly.

3) your telling us that JJ should cut out the action and amazing SFX sequences so we can have The Dark Knight of Star Trek? now, your just being ridiculous.

every single time a blockbuster comes out there is always those complainers wanting the blockbuster to be The Dark Knight aka a drama/plot driven masterpiece. FYI, that doesn’t sell because not every villain is going to be nor should every villain be a masterpiece worthy of eternal worship ala Khan, Ledger’s Joker, or Hannibal Lector. Star Trek (2009) did not leave me wanting despite Nero’s lack of depth and villainous screen time. I want action, I want my money’s worth of it, and I want them to utilize the wall-to-wall screens and amazing technology that is out there. It doesn’t mean I want them to ignore the characters and writing, though. But again, this is an announcement teaser, and they’re not going to highlight the acting in an announcement teaser or even a teaser trailer because the reality is people are more inclined to spend money on what I described earlier – that’s why Oscar winners usually make diddly squat in theaters compared to doubled-down action movies.

Honestly, watching that trailer- if I didn’t recognize the actors from being in the prior movie, I wouldn’t have thought that was for a Star Trek movie. I would have thought it was for a slightly futuristic screamer/horror movie.

If you haven’t heard of Zachary Quinto (Heroes), Bernard Cumberbatch (Sherlock), John Cho (Harold and Kumar), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), and Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings) you probably haven’t watched many movies in the last decade or so.